Branding Bowl Games: Orange Bowl
The FedEx Orange Bowl, played on New Year’s Day, is the second oldest college bowl game. It was created in hopes of drawing tourists back to Miami after the 1926 hurricane and the 1929 stock market crash.
The name seems like an obvious choice, as Florida is the largest producer of oranges in the U.S., but it took almost a decade for the name we know to develop. The game was first played in 1926 as part of the "The Fiesta of the American Tropics". A few years later, the Greater Miami Athletic Association organized the game under the name Palm Festival, with the slogan “Have a Green Christmas in Miami”. In 1935, the chairman of the Greater Miami Athletic Club and a local radio announcer came up with the name "Orange Bowl". FedEx became the game’s sponsor 1989.
The success of the game led to the construction of the Orange Bowl Stadium as a WPA project. The stadium was originally named Burdine Stadium, after a local businessman who owned a department store. The game moved to Miami’s Dolphin Stadium in 1996.
Branding Bowl Games: Rose Bowl
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Let me introduce you to “The Granddaddy of Them All”...the Rose Bowl Game. This annual American college football bowl game achieved its nickname by being the first post season game, dating back to 1902! It starts things off right on New Year’s Day in Pasadena California, and since 1945, has been the highest attended college football game!
Don’t be fooled though! This legacy goes far beyond an annual football game. The first tournament was actually staged in 1890 when a local group decided to hold a festival to tell the world about their paradise of blooming flowers and warm weather. The Festival included such amazing games as ostrich races, chariot races, and bronco busting demonstrations.
What eventually developed into the Tournament of Roses, also known as “America’s New Year Celebration,” is famous for an amazing parade that consists of floats now featuring high-tech computerized animation and exotic natural materials from around the world.
This year the Rose Bowl Game will be Penn State vs. USC, so make sure you check out who wins the granddaddy of all games! Learn more here.
Contributed by: Ashley Hollingsworth
Branding Bowl Games: Outback Bowl
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The Outback Bowl www.outbackbowl.com is played on New Years day at “The New Sombrero” Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. It pits the third pick of the SEC vs the third pick of the Big Ten Conference.
Suffering from something of an identity crisis for decades, this bowl game had several aliases before Outback Steakhouse became the title sponsor in 1995. From 1977 to 1985 the game had two names: The Hall of Fame Classic, and the All American Bowl. Both of these names signified the game that was played at Legion Field in Birmingham Alabama.
In 1986, the Hall of Fame Bowl was relocated to Tampa Florida. Legion Field hosted a game for the next five years under a different name, and after that would not see postseason college football until 2006, with the creation of the PapaJohns.com bowl. In 2001, the US Army sponsored a new All-American Bowl for the top high school football players in the country.
The Outback bowl was the first American sporting event of this century. On Jan 1, 2000, the Georgia Bulldogs inched out the Purdue Boilermakers in one of the greatest ever bowl-game comebacks (25 points). Feathers will fly this year as the 2009 Outback bowl features a battle between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Contributed by: Maghan Cook